


Not One More

by Eriakit



Category: World of Warcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-04 23:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1797649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eriakit/pseuds/Eriakit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Draenei paladin during the Thal'darah quest chain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not One More

**Author's Note:**

> So I was leveling my paladin in Stonetalon, and it struck me that the Thal'darah quest chain (with the Grove getting destoyed) would hit ANY Draenei hard, but especially a paladin. And there were night elves fighting near the glaive throwers, and there were catapults, and, well... plot bunny.

Shiani watched from the back of the hipogrpyph, helpless, as the Grove continued to burn. She could barely wrap her mind around it, the sheer destruction, the _death_. Her fingers tightened around their handful of Master Thal'darah's robes, her tail wrapped around her own leg, and she tried to make herself as small as possible as she curled into his back.

When he spoke, his voice was heavy and tight with grief. "You did all you could have done, paladin. You saved many-"

"I saved _five_! Five, in the face of... of... I don't even know how many there were." Her voice faded into nothing. He didn't answer her implied question. She buried her face in his white hair, fighting off the despair that seemed determined to over take her. The memories were even more difficult. Children dying by the dozens, by the _hundreds_... was no world spared this horror? What use was fighting back, when all it got you was more death?

They landed, and for a moment Shiani couldn't force herself to move. Master Thal'darah reached out, gently helping her off the mount once she startled into awareness. She attempted a grateful smile, but it never quite formed. After a moment they looked out onto where the Grove had once been. The despairing silence was broken at last by Thal'darah, speaking words of retribution and vengeance. Shiani couldn't agree more.

 

\-----

 

Shiani wiped her brow, before letting her breath out in a loud _whoosh_. Her back and shoulders ached from the near-constant swinging of her sword, and she was covered in a disgusting mud made of orc blood and the dust of Stonetalon. Just how many damned orcs were there? How quickly they must breed, to have this many troops on a world they don't belong to!

The night elf she was fighting next to sent her a grin before leaping back into battle. A shadow passed over him, and before Shiani could shout a warning, the Horde projectile landed on him. Shocked, Shaini rushed forward and shoved the boulder off of her ally.

The elf was, amazingly, still conscious - though only barely. His left side was a mangled, crushed mess from shoulder to knee. Shiani knelt, struck dumb at the thought of somebody _surviving_ that, before her training kicked in. Closing her eyes, she reached out to the Light and began to pray.

After a moment a soft, warm glow began to spread from her chest to her finger tips. Opening her eyes, she reached out and pressed the palm of her hand to the night elf's shoulder. The elf whimpered, but didn't try to move, which was for the best. Shiani's prayers increased in intensity, becoming more and more of a chant as the Light continued to fill her, finally flowing out towards the youngling. _Not another one_ , she thought. _They won't take another child while I still breathe._

A hand touched her stomach. Startled, she opened her eyes, unsure of when she had closed them again or how much time had passed, and saw the young elf smiling at her. He had reached out with what was closest to bring her out of her trance. His bones had obviously mended, but he was still bleeding from various wounds. Sighing, Shiani closed her eyes in relief, murmuring a quick prayer of thanks to the Naaru, before another boulder landed not two feet from where she knelt. Shocked into motion, she hoisted the elf over her shoulder and broke into a run toward Thal'darah Overlook.

The elf lost consciousness halfway there, but that might've been for the best at that point.

 

\-----

 

Much later, Shiani sat on the edge of a moonwell in Farwatcher's Glen, contemplating her recent actions. She had thought that years of being a paladin, of training and prayers and forgiveness, had cured her of her rages. She had been wrong.

Training had, however, made her capable of remembering what she did during one.  She wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse. She remembered healing that elf child. She remembered returning to the battlefield in time to see an orc laugh as it cut down an elf she hadn't been fast enough to save, feeling the hot rush of pure _rage_ as she watched her fall. She remembered the feeling of the orc's guts spilling over her hand when her sword nearly cut him in half, and the shock in his eyes. She had seen the glaive thrower then, right where Master Thal'darah had said it would be. She clambered into the driver's seat, and only took a second to figure out the controls before she began her rampage.

She had lost count of how many she had killed soon after. Crushing them beneath the wheels of the glaive thrower, launching projectiles anywhere she saw green skin or orcish siege weapons. She wondered if she could be forgiven for how many she had killed, in that short span of time. She wondered if she even  _needed_ forgiveness, after what they had done.

She was brought out of her maudlin thoughts by the feeling of something moving within her breastplate. She smiled sadly as she unbuckled her armor to reach in and remove her small friend. He was a tiny thing, the runt of the litter. Most would have killed a sporebat so small, so seemingly worthless. She chuckled as he settled on her hand, wrapping his tail around her wrist. It was times like this that she remembered why she had named him Hope. Such a strange sounding word in the Human language. Hope nibbled on her thumb as she fetched him a treat from her pack.

As Hope ate on his half of the apple, Shiani considered how similar the light of the moonwell was to the light of a Naaru. Perhaps it wasn't only the terrible things that was the same on both worlds.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, it's my headcanon that my paladin keeps her very tiny sporebat in her breastplate when fighting in large battles or flying. What of it? I mean really. Where would you keep it? It's small enough.


End file.
